Julio Fuentes

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The number of news outlets grew yet again, continuing an expansion of the media that began with the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001. With journalism's higher profile, however, came increases in threats, attacks, and detentions targeting the press. These cases had a chilling effect on the news media, leading to greater self-censorship and creating a more complex press freedom landscape.

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The world witnessed a series of democratic milestones in postwar Afghanistan in 2004, from a newly ratified constitution in January to the first direct presidential election in October. Conditions for the blossoming Afghan press improved in many areas, with a significant expansion of news media outlets and fortified constitutional protections for freedom of expression and the press. Yet considerable challenges remain. The lack of security, ethnic and cultural tensions, and a lack of access to information impede and endanger reporters. Afghanistan's powerful warlords, armed groups, security services, and even government ministries continue to pressure, threaten, and harass journalists who report on their activities or cross sensitive cultural barriers. As a result, local reporters say, self-censorship became more prevalent in 2004.

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New York, April 22, 2003—Afghan officials announced yesterday that they have arrested five men suspected of involvement in the murder of four journalists killed in an ambush in southeastern Afghanistan on November 19, 2001.

Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan photographer for the Reuters news agency; Harry Burton, an Australian cameraman for Reuters; Julio Fuentes, a Spanish correspondent for the Madrid-based newspaper El Mundo; and Maria Grazia Cutuli, an Italian correspondent for the Milan-based daily Corriere della Sera, were traveling at the head of a convoy en route to the capital, Kabul, when a group of gunmen stopped them near the town of Sarobi, some 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of the capital. Gunmen dragged the four journalists out of two of the front cars and executed them using Kalashnikov rifles, according to a driver and translator who were allowed to flee and later spoke to reporters.

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Parrado, a correspondent for the Spanish daily El Mundo, died in an Iraqi missile attack while accompanying the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division south of the capital, Baghdad. Both Parrado and Christian Liebig, a German journalist for Focus magazine who was also killed in the incident, were embedded with the division, according to Agence France-Presse.

According to Focus editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort, the two men had decided not to travel with the unit to Baghdad, believing they would be safer at the base. Two U.S. soldiers were also killed during the attack, and 15 were injured. Parrado was the second El Mundo correspondent to have been killed in conflict in almost two years: Correspondent Julio Fuentes died after gunmen ambushed his convoy in Afghanistan in 2001.

April 7, 2003 12:00 AM ET

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ON NOVEMBER 19, 2001, I was at the border negotiating with officials to get across into Afghanistan. There was suddenly an unexplained problem, yet journalists arriving from Afghanistan said they had no trouble along the way. I was frustrated.

None of us knew that a caravan of our colleagues had just been attacked on a deserted stretch of highway between Jalalabad and Kabul, a few hours away. Gunmen forced four foreign journalists and an Afghan guide from two of the lead cars. One of the drivers described how his passengers were pushed down to the riverbank and shot dead. He said the gunmen claimed to be members of the Taliban militia, though their identity has never been confirmed.

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In recent years, it had become common for people who care about Afghanistan to worry about its growing invisibility. The all-encompassing burqa gown, which the ruling Taliban forced women to wear, seemed a metaphor for the militia's efforts to hide Afghanistan's people and problems from the world. Visits by foreign correspondents were restricted; taking pictures was banned. In March, authorities expelled the only Western correspondent resident in Taliban-held territory, Kate Clark of the BBC, because of her reporting on the militia's destruction of ancient Buddhist statues in Bamiyan.

New York, January 3, 2002--A total of 37 journalists were killed worldwide as a direct result of their work in 2001, a sharp increase from 2000 when 24 were killed, according to CPJ research. At least 25 were murdered, almost all with impunity.

The dramatic rise is mainly due to the war in Afghanistan, where eight journalists were killed in the line of duty covering the US-led military campaign and a ninth journalist died of wounds sustained there two years ago. This was the highest death toll recorded for a single country since 1999, when 10 journalists were killed in Sierra Leone.

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November 19, 2001—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged by the apparent murder of four journalists who were seized yesterday while traveling between Jalalabad and Kabul.

The journalists have been identified by their news organizations as Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer for the Reuters news agency; Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman for Reuters; Julio Fuentes, a Spanish correspondent for the Madrid-based newspaper El Mundo; and Maria Grazia Cutuli, an Italian journalist for the Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera.